Chapter 870: Chapter 869: Northport

The icy cold wind blew in from the direction of the sea, stirring the Empire’s flag high over the coastline. Under the sword and plough emblem of blue and gold, soldiers and skilled craftsmen were welding today’s third anchoring post to the steel framework—the unpackaged Magic Web Runes on the ground not far away shimmered with a faint glow, and sparks from the beams of thermal energy spread on the ground that had just been hardened not long ago. Inside the metal frame, which stood over ten meters high, some copper pipes and heat conduction fins had already been fixed in place, waiting to be connected with the remaining heat pipes.

This enormous device was part of the "Waste Heat Recovery Center," using circulating Alchemy Solution within the pipes. This apparatus would collect the waste heat released from several nearby facilities—including an Alchemy Reaction Tower, a Rune Casting Factory, and a Slime Waste Incineration Center—and distribute it through high-efficiency heat exchangers to the camp’s heating system to provide warmth to the western side of the coast.

To survive long-term in the freezing northern regions, such technology is indispensable; it is far cleaner and more efficient than chopping down the slowly growing arctic trees at the foot of the mountains for firewood. It also minimizes impacts on the local residents’ lives. Someday, these facilities might even be used to provide heat to nearby residential areas—though that is far in the future.

Further away, on the flat, open ground near Northport’s coast, various simple structures, military tents, towers, and some newly constructed brick and tile houses were scattered about with many materials stacked like mountains. Recently arrived large engineering machinery was busy working on site, and a temporary dock extending towards the sea had already been built, while the area near the dock was planned for the future construction of dry docks.

This temporary dock was not anchored to the seabed near the shore by piles or floating bridges; it was constructed using several enormous ice piles. These ice piles were as thick as bell towers, freezing from the seabed and extending to the surface, with numerous branch ice pillars piercing deep into the seabed, making the whole structure incredibly stable.

Byron stood on a large rock near the temporary dock, laughing joyfully into the sea breeze. He couldn’t help but tell High Chancellor Victoria beside him, "Your ice Magic is truly astonishing—I’ve heard that the Wilder Clan has mastered the art of ice Magic to perfection, but I never imagined it could be so powerful... When you raised twelve ice ’pillars’ in the ocean, that scene was practically art."

"You over-praise it; this is just the crude use of Magic Power," Victoria shook her head indifferently. In the cold wind, this "Northern Queen" still wore her long dress, and the flying fragments of ice and snow seemed to shield her like a barrier. "Also, I never thought I would use these magical skills one day... to build something; it’s a novel experience, and I’m glad I didn’t mess up on my first try."

"Magic is a convenient thing, using it to improve lives or advance technology is much more worthwhile than wasting mages’ energies on the battlefield—that’s not my opinion, it’s what the King says," Byron said with a smile. "Although I don’t quite understand matters of the magic domain, I always highly approve of the King’s words because, at least since Princess Rebecca started working in the lab, mysterious explosions and fires in other places have occurred much less..."

Victoria contemplated for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "But as I see it, Princess Rebecca’s magical talent is far higher than anyone imagines—her ability to sculpt a fireball into a life-sized statue of the King is true ’magical art’. Although I can’t understand the principles behind it... if I had the chance, I’d love to study the mysteries of the energy domain with her..."

The Grand Duke of Ice and Snow always takes things seriously at odd times, and Byron had long grown accustomed to this; he didn’t let the weird (and seemingly defamatory against the royal family) topic continue, but instead, casually brought up another matter: "As the ruler of the northern parts, is there really no problem with you frequently lingering in ’Northport’?"

"The ruler of the northern parts is the Administrative Office of the Northern Provinces, the Grand Governor’s authority is just part of the Administrative Office," Victoria said softly. "As for Northport... Northport is currently the most important project in the entire northern region, and the eyes from the imperial capital are constantly watching here. Plus, I often make appearances here... to show the Wilder Clan’s stance on this matter."

Byron shook his head, "I hope the families in the northern parts someday understand your goodwill—you’re doing your utmost to prevent them from being listed ’on the sheet.’"

Victoria said nothing, she just stood there quietly, her cool gaze slowly sweeping across the entire coastline and the continuous mountain ranges far from the coast.

The "Northern Construction Corps" led by Byron had been stationed on this cold coastline for a month; in the sixty or more days, construction equipment worked day and night, materials continuously arrived from the rear, and under the dual push of magic and modern industry, the outline of a rather sizable seaport was rapidly taking shape, undoubtedly exhilarating.

But this grand construction activity and the sizable construction army had unsurprisingly attracted quite a few gazes.

This is the northern parts, chilly and stubborn northern parts, distant from every kingdom civil war, distant from every political shake-up, distant from magical industry. In these frozen mountain depths, ancient families, and the fierce obstinate ethos ingrained in their bloodline were as unchanged as centuries ago.

They instinctively reject anyone ’stirring things up’ on their ancestors’ land, even if those people came to help build up this land, even if the traditional rulers of this land have openly stated their stance and issued warnings, there are still quite a few people secretly resisting the Northport project.

The people here have not yet developed the concept of "the Empire as a whole," so it’s useless to tell them about national planning.

Despite Victoria’s previous statement to Byron, clearly expressing support for the Northport construction and not minding "knocking" those short-sighted local families for it, in the end, she didn’t want to see too many people hanging from flagpoles outside Northport—a port with too many flagpoles wouldn’t be "pleasant" for the entire northern parts.

So this "Northern Grand Duke" could only choose to come to Northport a few times during the early stages of the project, at least... the Wilder Clan’s dignity was still effective on this land.

Byron’s gaze turned toward the distant sea—in this clear, sparsely clouded day, a Transcendent could gaze far into the distance. His sight crossed the gently undulating sea, past the foaming waves shimmering under the sun. The Sacred Dragon Kingdom’s "Peninsula toward the sea" and parts of the Violet Kingdom’s border could vaguely be seen, but in the distance, only a vast expanse of white remained.

That was a distance even the eyesight of a Transcendent struggled to touch—strong magical supplies or additional Spell effects were needed to see that far.

"The direction of the storm circle..." Victoria noted Byron’s gaze direction, nodding slightly, "On rare days when the weather is clear enough and the storm happens to expand in scale, it can be directly observed. But this time of year it should be invisible—the storm circle in the northern offshore retracts during summer, the outermost cloud walls retreat more than usual from the land, so normally it can’t be seen with the naked eye. However, Bitter Winter Castle has a large Eye of the Mage device, it can see the other side of the peninsula at any season, I occasionally use it to observe that storm.

Byron curiously glanced at Victoria, "Have you found anything noteworthy?"

"Aside from confirming that it truly won’t disperse and identifying its change cycle, no discoveries at all," Victoria shook her head, "That ocean is anything but calm, reaching an area humans could never tread, where even legendary powerhouses would perish outside the storm circle—no one knows how that storm formed, let alone to verify its internal structure."

"The King seems to think it’s part of the defense system of the dragon kingdom ’Talronde,’ beyond the storm is the dragon’s territory," Byron said casually, "If you ask me, he can directly discuss it with that dragon lady who often visits... seems her name is Melita Ponia, maybe she has some insights."

Victoria said expressionlessly, "...The northern regions have many legends about Dragonkin, mostly originating from the Sacred Dragon Kingdom. From our perspective, Dragonkin are not easy characters to deal with."

Byron let out a noncommittal laugh, then, while gazing at the sea, slowly said in contemplation: "Not easy to deal with... But at this rate, once we step off this land and send ships out to distant seas, we’ll inevitably have to deal with all kinds of races sooner or later..."

Victoria glanced at Byron, opened her mouth as if wanting to say something, but before she could speak, a faint commotion came from the southern part of the camp, interrupting what she wanted to say.

Following the sound, she saw that a sizable group of people had gathered near the checkpoint in the camp’s southern area, all dressed in civilian clothes, while soldiers from the checkpoint had already gone to maintain order. The sounds of shouting occasionally came from there, punctuated by a strong northern dialect.

Victoria’s brows furrowed immediately. She vaguely guessed what was happening over there, the snow and ice surrounding her instantly condensed, swirling in the air like frigid ice blades, her tone as cold as winter: "I’m here, yet there are still people..."

Before the Duchess could finish speaking, Byron suddenly raised his hand to interrupt her. This mercenary-turned-Imperial General merely glanced over, realized what was happening, and showed a peculiar smile: "Don’t be too excited, Grand Governor, they’re just civilians, some familiar faces— you’ve missed some recent happenings, but I know the situation. It’s not as serious as you imagine. It’s a minor issue."

Saying this, Byron jumped to the ground and started walking towards the checkpoint, while instructing the following Victoria: "Don’t show yourself later, they might get too anxious— just watch me handle it."

Victoria nodded in confusion, casually cast a position distortion Force Field to cloak herself, and accompanied Byron to the camp’s southern checkpoint. Here, nearly a hundred civilians had assembled and stood distinctly separated from the soldiers.

"The General is here...""The General is here..."

Some in the crowd saw Byron’s figure, and whispers of reminders rose and fell, as the soldiers cleared a path, and the gathered civilians neatly retreated two steps.

With her figure hidden by the position distortion Force Field, Victoria immediately focused her gaze on those civilians—they wore coarse but clean and warm clothes, and their expressions and appearances showed they were local mountain residents who had worked here for years. Most striking was that these people included not only robust men but also women and children, a complete family assembly.

While Victoria speculated that these gathered civilians might have been incited by some family, Byron had already stepped forward in front of the crowd.

The civilians in their rough clothing looked at the fully armed, towering and imposing Imperial General with some apprehension, yet they didn’t retreat further.

Byron glanced at them and casually said: "You gathered here, for what purpose?"

The tone was calm and natural, as if he was already accustomed to it.

A few men in the crowd stepped out, initially looking back involuntarily, then daringly approached Byron: "General, we have something to say..."

Byron raised an eyebrow: "Same as before?"

"Yes," the men nodded in agreement, then took a deep breath and loudly yelled in raspy voices, "Southerners don’t touch our land! You’re digging up our mineral veins and water sources!!"

The civilians gathered behind them also shouted forth, the scattered calls lasted several seconds before stopping altogether.

The leading man looked at Byron with a hint of expectation, whereas Byron pursed his lips and waved his hand dismissively: "You’ve all heard—arrest these people, send the men to the west side to dig drainage ditches, the women to process potatoes and jerky, the children to the kitchen to help, and after that, an hour of literacy class for them... Who brought this one that’s less than five years old!?"

A tall, skinny man squeezed out of the crowd, awkwardly smiling: "Me, it’s my son... He’s quite clever! Though he really is almost seven, he just looks skinny..."

"I’m not blind, if he’s five and a half, I’d call him my son!" Byron glared at the tall, skinny man, then annoyedly waved his hand, "Off you go, mind the kids, don’t bring them tomorrow."

The group of civilians at the checkpoint immediately headed forward joyously, very cooperatively subjected themselves to searches by the soldiers, and under the escort of several soldiers, proceeded into the camp, with the leading man pausing beside Byron, smiling obsequiously: "General, still daily payouts?"

"What else?" Byron glared at him, "Imperial soldiers would never deceive civilians, daily payouts mean daily payouts!"

"Good, that’s good..."

The man nodded happily, quickening his pace to catch up with the departing group heading into the camp.

Victoria stood nearby, dumbfounded.